Men of Peace Oklahoma Spotlight

Men of Peace Settling the Southern Plains, especially Indian Territory, did not come easily. Blood flowed frequently as whites and Indians struggled over land. Factions and dissensions within the tribes and battles between tribes, along with the troubles caused by the removals, resulted in many bloody battles, from the eastern rivers to the western plains. The early settlers, like the fierce Osage, resented other tribes moving into their broad hunting ranges. They vented their anger Oklahoma against the intruders. For example, the Calendar History of the Kiowa Indians, which began in 1832, called the Spotlight year of 1833 the “Year of the Cutthroat Massacre.” The year was named for the massacre of hundreds of Kiowa old people, women, and children by the warring Osage. All the elements of violence were there. Indian tribes had been shoved further and further west by the ever increasing white settlements. Whole tribes were removed to Indian Territory from nearly every section of the nation. The newly settled lands were always smaller in area than the lands that they had given up. Treaties called for food, farming equipment, annuities, sometimes arms and ammunition, and other provisions to compensate the Indians for their loss of land. To whites, Indians were a barrier to progress. The land needed to be productive, railroads needed to be built, and safe passage was necessary for the flow of settlers and goods moving westward. To Indians, the white concept of land use was an assault on Mother Earth. They resented being forced to conform to a different way of life by the need for more and more land for white settlements. They feared the destruction of their way of life. They feared the extinction of the life- sustaining buffalo, as well as the extinction of the tribes themselves. The battles that were fought all across the Northern and Southern Plains were battles where both the Indians and whites were protecting their ways of life. From those battles, recorded history appears to favor the warriors and the fighting cavalrymen who made names for themselves through heroic feats. The names of the warrior-chiefs—such as Geronimo, Ro- man Nose, Satank, Satanta, and Quanah Parker—struck fear in the hearts of the early settlers. The names of military leaders—such as 125 Chivington, Sherman, Sheridan, and Custer—were recorded in history because of their victories at Sand Creek and the Battle of the Washita. Hundreds of Cheyennes perished under the guns and swords of the cavalrymen in those battles. Unfortunately, the peacemakers are too frequently overlooked, and there were men of peace on the Southern Plains. There were the early missionaries and their wives and children who came to live among the various tribes so that Indian families could be Christianized and Indian children could be educated. There was Major Edward W. Wynkoop, whose friendship with Black Kettle and whose efforts to avoid blood- shed among the Plains Indians, made him a trusted white man among the Western Tribes. There was Black Kettle, the great chief of the Southern Cheyenne tribe. He tried to live at peace with whites but died at the Battle of the Washita. Also, there was Chief Kickingbird of the Kiowas and Standing Bear of the Poncas. It was Standing Bear who sought justice in the federal courts. Because of him, a judge declared that Indians were indeed human beings with personal liberties and rights guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States. Settlement by whites and by Indians had been bloody, before and after the Civil War. Citizens began to exert great pressure upon govern- ment officials to find a solution to the Indian problem. The Plains Tribes were interfering with western emigration. They interfered with the mail, with trade goods being transported overland, and with the building of railroads across the Plains. They even interfered with the cattle herds being driven across Indian Territory to railheads in Kansas and Mis- souri. The tribes were obstacles to new settlements on the prairies and to land openings in unoccupied lands. On the frontier, many army commanders believed that the Indians had to be isolated or destroyed. Many Indian chiefs were urging war. Others sought a more peaceful, humane solution. Two who sought peaceful solutions were Wynkoop and Black Kettle. In 1866, the American expansion westward had just begun, and Congress had reorganized the Union Army into an Indian-fighting force to protect those involved. The whole state of Kansas was under the command of Major General Winfield Scott Hancock. One of his prob- lems was dealing with threats to the Kansas Pacific Railroad by the hostile Plains tribes. General Hancock and one of his officers,George Armstrong Custer, were fresh from their victories in the Civil War. They had little under- 126 standing of their opponents on the Plains. Wynkoop had been commander of Fort Lyon, Colorado, and had come to know and respect the Plains Indians. He had formed a close personal relationship with Black Kettle. Because of his friendship with the Indians, he was appointed agent to the Cheyenne and Arapaho tribes. He quickly arranged a meeting between General Hancock and the tribal chiefs. The meeting went badly from the beginning. A late spring blizzard had struck the area, causing the Indians to be late. Threats were exchanged, and the meeting ended abruptly when General Hancock stated his intention to move his command closer to the Indian village. With the memories of the Sand Creek Massacre fresh in their minds, the chiefs became alarmed and left. Although Wynkoop tried to dissuade Hancock from following the Indians, Hancock moved his command closer to the village. There he was vis- ited by Sioux Chief Pawnee Killer and Cheyennes White Horse and Bull Bear. They agreed to meet again the next morning. When noon came and the chiefs had not ar- rived, the impatient general ordered his cavalrymen to move toward the village. Within a few miles, he came face to face with several hundred Cheyenne and Sioux warriors and chiefs. A battle was about to take place when Wynkoop rode forward to talk with Chief Roman Nose. An impressive Cheyenne warrior chief, Roman Nose White Bear stood almost six feet, four inches tall and carried himself with the dig- (Satanta), Kiowa Chief nity of a king. Oklahoma Historical The battle was avoided, but General Hancock felt tricked by the Society chiefs when he learned that all the women, children, and old people had been moved from the camp. He and Custer continued to pursue the Cheyennes as they moved from one site to another. It was Wynkoop who arranged for the meeting at Medicine Lodge Creek to sign treaties with the hostile tribes. Wynkoop and General Wil- liam S. Harney spoke and openly criticized Hancock’s campaign against the Cheyennes and the burning of Cheyenne villages. As all Plains 127 Indian chiefs listened carefully, Wynkoop talked at great length about the campaigns against the Cheyenne and the Sioux. He made charges of fraud in the handling of annuities and in the bad condition of the provisions given to the Indians. The chiefs of the nations had come in full dress, impressive in their feathered headdresses and colorful robes. The powerfully built chief of the Kiowas, Satanta, or White Bear, spoke as did Silver Broach of the Comanches, Poor Bear of the Apaches, and Ten Bears of the Comanches. However, Black Kettle remained silent. Finally, all the Plains Tribes except the Chey- ennes had signed the Treaty of Medicine Lodge Creek, an important step in bringing a peaceful settlement to the Plains. Then, under great duress, Tall Bull signed for the Cheyennes. Wynkoop continued to struggle to fulfill the terms of the treaty, urging strongly that the govern- ment keep its promises to provide arms, provisions, and annuities. It was Wynkoop who had to meet with thousands of Plains Indians to tell them when supplies, especially the promised guns and ammunition, were missing from the shipments. As soon as he was successful in getting supplies, a band of renegade Cheyennes killed some white settlers. Once again talk of war spread through the camps. It was Wynkoop who demanded that the Cheyennes hand Kickingbird, over the guilty braves. He knew that such an action Kiowa Chief was unthinkable and was unlikely to happen. Oklahoma Historical Society Wynkoop then suggested that the peaceful Cheyennes be separated from the warring parties and be protected by federal troops. He felt that was the only way to protect the peaceful Cheyennes in the event of war. The wars came. Wynkoop worked hard to bring about peace. He criticized Congress for failing to send the provisions they had promised. As he prepared to go to Washington where he could make his fight public, he learned that Custer had attacked the village of his old friend, Black Kettle. Black Kettle and hundreds of peaceful Cheyennes had been slain. Wynkoop angrily denounced Custer for his action. He called the battle a massacre of friendly Indians. The name it was given was the Battle of the Washita. 128 General William Tecumseh Sherman answered Wynkoop’s charges against Custer with attacks on the character of Black Kettle. He claimed that the Cheyenne chief was one of the most active chiefs in starting acts of war. Sherman defended Custer’s actions by saying that, by kill- ing Black Kettle, Custer had put an end to one of the most troublesome, dangerous Indians on the Southern Plains. Wynkoop appeared before the United States Indian Commission to defend his old friend, Black Kettle: His innate dignity and lofty bearing, combined with his sagacity and intelligence, had that moral effect which placed him in the posi- tion as a potentate [ruler].

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